APPLE CIDER DONUTS


If being basic involves loving pumpkin stuff and apple orchards and Fall, sign me up.  I love, love, love Fall.  The musky smell of crunchy leaves and the dust from the fields turning all of the sunsets fiery and stretching lazy golden shadows across the yard.  Cool days slow us down and provide respite as summer's dizzying flurry of activity is gradually consumed by the cozy feeling of tucking in for the winter.  The only weather that can top Fall, though, is an overcast, foggy day that makes it feel like the whole earth is closed in tight and hugging you with a wispy mist of teeny raindrops that never seem to fall.  I guess there's also those quiet winter nights where the moonlight shines on the snow and turns everything a bright glowing indigo and I think it's the closest I'll ever be to standing on the moon.  And the feeling of waking up on a Saturday in the summer when it's chilly but you know it will turn into the most wonderfully breezy 70 degree day and you think you could probably fly if you put your mind to it because the day holds so much possibility.  I guess all of the seasons are pretty great.

Oh, yeah: Fall, apple orchards, and apple cider donuts (you had me at donut, but the apple cider is a darned good addition).  When I was a kid, on lazy Saturday mornings my mom would get up early and make the dough for fried cake donuts.  We'd lumber downstairs and listen to the Raaaaaaanger Biiiill nature show on the radio while dunking our still-hot donuts in too much sugar and fighting over the holes.  Oh, simpler times.

These are so crispy on the outside, warm and soft on the inside, and have just a bit of apple tang from the concentrated apple cider in the dough.